Internet censorship is spreading and becoming more sophisticated across the planet, even as users develop savvier ways around it, according to early results in the first-ever comprehensive global survey of internet censorship.

The spectrum of internet censorship ranged from transparent to utterly murky. Perhaps the country with the most accessible filtering system was Saudi Arabia. On their website, they have all the information of why they block and what they block. And they invite contributions (of other sites to be blocked) from the public.

Sometimes a censoring government tries to conceal its filtering behind spoofed web-browser error messages. Tunisia, for instance, masks filtered pages by serving a mockup of Internet Explorer's 404 error page. Rather than getting a page that says 'This page has been blocked,' you get a page saying 'Page not found,' designed to look exactly like the Internet Explorer 404 page. These supposed error pages stand out when you're not using IE....

Imagine being held hostage for three years somewhere in the jungle of Colombia! Three years of hardly any contact with the outside world, of being watched all the time, of constant relocation.

It is the fate of the now 43 year old Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped in February 2002 by guerrilla organization FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).Her impassioned calls for an end to political corruption and Colombia's vicious civil war had made her a popular public figure, but a dangerous instigator to many within her country's political machine.

Even in captivity she hasn't stopped protesting: she nearly died in the course of one of at least three hunger strikes while in captivity.

On Feb. 23, 2005, the anniversary of Betancourt's kidnapping, a book will come out titled "Searching for Ingrid", written by her husband Juan Carlos Lecompte.

The book delves into a dirty truth about Colombia: more than a thousand human beings are kidnapped here every year and bartered for ransom. But even a king's ransom cannot get Betancourt and some others out.

The rebels call them "exchangeables" and say they will be freed only in a swap for rebels held in Colombian prisons. Some of the exchangeables - including politicians, soldiers and police - have been captives for eight years.

The first month of this year is already gone! Another 2678399 seconds or 44639 minutes or 743 hours down the drain.Only 334 days or 8015 hours or 480959 minutes or 28857599 seconds remaining till 2006...

The other day two guys on a scooter stole a purse from a woman who was sitting in her car. She immediately drove in reverse to chase them, but unfortunately she hit the scooter and the thief was killed when he slammed into a tree. The 43 year old woman was arrested and is now indicted for man slaughter!I am totally against taking justice in your own hands, but this was just a result of frustration and anger of being robbed so blatantly. If the asshole hadn't robbed her, she now would be sitting on her own couch at home!

To make things worse: today there was a silent march in memory of the thief. The guy just had been to court the morning of the theft for being accused of armed robbery on a store half a year ago. What an idiot!

I hope the real victim (the woman) is released very soon without blame!